Last month, the DPS school board held a day-long retreat at the district’s Balarat Outdoor Education Center. The seven-member board is divided on many issues, with four members in the majority and three — including Andrea Merida, the subject of this week’s feature — in the minority. The retreat was…
Our latest feature story, “Andrea Merida’s Classroom Behavior Has Earned Her a Seat Apart on the Denver School Board,” profiles Merida, the controversial DPS board member who, in ten months on the board, has butted heads with administrators, stood up for teachers when no one else would, and survived two…
On Monday’s Oprah, host Oprah Winfrey spotlighted the new documentary Waiting For “Superman”, which examines charter schools and America’s troubled public-education system. Along the way, she opened her pocketbook and gave $1 million to six impressive charters — among them the Denver School of Science & Technology. Below, Bill Kurtz,…
Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida has shaken things up at DPS. In ten months, she’s butted heads with administrators, stood up for teachers when no one else would, and survived two recall attempts. Some think she’s too abrasive and divisive, and after failing to disclose that she was…
The jumble of words and pictures on the sign shown above indicate that University of Denver traffic engineers are firm believers in the use of picture puzzles to sharpen the mind. This roadway rebus is located on East Asbury Avenue between the Ricketson Law Building parking lot and the Coors…
Most CU fans suffered the Buffs 52-7 defeat to the University of California at Berkeley in agonized silence. But not Julien Lounis. As the Boulder Daily Camera reports, the CU student sent athletic department folks an invoice for the $401.40 he spent traveling to Cali for the game. Will he…
A second attempt to recall Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida has failed. The Denver Elections Division again rejected a recall petition submitted by three voters in Merida’s district because it contained numerous typos and legal flaws and was not in the proper format, according to a letter sent…
Denver Public Schools sure have changed. Gone are the neighborhood schools, with their traditional program of teaching the three Rs. Each has been replaced with a shiny new charter school that offers parents a wide array of options to suit their level of fear. The gun-in-the-backpack drill is just one…
An attempt to recall Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida failed yesterday when a petition to initiate the process was rejected by the Denver Elections Division. According to division spokesman Alton Dillard, the petition was not in the proper format. But one of the people behind the petition, Anita…
In mid-August, an Air Force Academy cadet survey showed statistically significant discrimination, harassment and the like against females, homosexuals, bisexuals and racial minorities, plus a considerable amount of unwanted religious proselytizing. But that info came from leaks; the Academy refuses to release all the data. Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder…
Nothing gets journalists more hysterical than perceived attacks on journalism. It’s no surprise, then, that an announcement the University of Colorado at Boulder was considering discontinuing its journalism school in favor of a new media entity prompted big play for panicky pieces implying that the move was another sign of…
Reeves Whalen didn’t mean to touch a nerve when he organized tonight’s panel discussion on Senate Bill 191, the controversial “teacher tenure bill” drafted by Senator Michael Johnston and approved by lawmakers earlier this year. But the lineup of speakers the personal injury attorney and active House District 5 Democrat…
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride: Colorado will not receive any money in round two of Race to the Top, President Obama’s federal education-reform grant contest. Though Colorado was one of nineteen finalists, several news sources are reporting that a U.S. Department of Education spokesman says Colorado is not a…
Denver Public Schools is launching a radio series aimed at teaching English to Spanish-speaking parents and families. Called Maestro en Casa (Teacher at Home), the series will debut on September 15 on MARIA 1090 AM. At a press conference at Kepner Middle School this morning, Superintendent Tom Boasberg said the…
Denver kids returned to school today. To celebrate, we scoured YouTube for the five best “first day of school” videos. After watching more than a dozen, we came to a stunning conclusion: Teenagers are offensive. It was hard to find a single video without a curse word, offensive taunt or…
Students returning to East High School today can look forward to a lesson in community involvement over the next two years, courtesy of Denver’s parks department. By the end of September, the city plans to demolish the former Safeway/Church in the City building — on land connected to East High’s…
Mary Pishney, the first-grade teacher whose arguably accurate negative performance evaluation was the subject of a recent Westword feature, will not return to the classroom when school starts again tomorrow. Pishney hasn’t been back to Bromwell Elementary School in Cherry Creek since stress-related health issues caused her to take a…
On Monday morning, the Colorado Department of Education will launch its Educator Effectiveness Project. It’s an undertaking made possible by $1 million in grants secured this summer…
SquareState.net has published a chain of e-mails between former DPS superintendent-turned-Senator Michael Bennet, current Denver Public Schools superintendent Tom Boasberg and board members Jeannie Kaplan and Teresa Pena about the DPS pension financing deal that made headlines in the New York Times last week. While the e-mails can be a…
The results from the thirteenth Colorado Student Assessment Program results are out, and the data that pertains to writing is anything but lucky. Student writing scores went down in the overwhelming majority of grades — and this trend is nothing new. Here’s an excerpt from the CSAP summary:…
Earlier in the week, we brought you news of the University of Colorado’s fall in the pot rankings. But why stop there? The Princeton Review ranks, logically or not , all manner of things: class discussions, race relations, general excellence and, yes, Birkenstock frequency. But what about the more… flavorful…
Colorado was chosen today as one of nineteen finalists in round two of the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top grant contest. If successful, the state stands to win $175 million. If not, Colorado gets zilch — which is what happened when it applied for $377 million in…
